1/19/2015

10 Things That Your Physics Teacher Taught Were Totally Wrong

It is said that the real genius is the one who learns everything thinking that the stuffs they are learning might be wrong too regardless how much popular and authentic the information may be. I think reading new thing is similar to digging the field. The more you dig the more soil you collect. The information which Aristotle discovered was proven wrong in the time of Newton. And the things which Newton discovered were proven wrong by Einstein. And the things discovered by Einstein might be proven wrong by someone else in the future. So I think the reader should take anything read as reference only. To illustrate my opinion, I have collected 10 popular beliefs of Physics which are still spreading as a superstition and myth, though scientists have already proven them to be wrong. Let’s see.

1. Many people still illustrate that Newton discovered laws of gravitation by watching an apple falling down from the tree. It is true that Newton discovered laws of gravitation but he has not mentioned anywhere that he did it by watching an apple falling down.

2. I was sometimes asked by my offline colleagues and students about the mystery of Bermuda Triangle. When I ask them to plot their understanding first about it before I explain, then they say that it is the triangular shaped area in the Atlantic Ocean. According to the worldwide belief, many aircrafts have been mysteriously lost in this area. When I asked what might be the reason behind it, then the uniform answer I get is that it happens due to the strong gravitational force of the area.

Now let me present the reality. I agree that there is a place named Bermuda which is an Iceland and Bermuda Triangle is named after it. But Bermuda Triangle, the sea giant, is hypothetical. The concept of mysterious gravitational force is very ridiculous. Because if there had really been so strong gravitational force that could pull down even the flying aeroplanes, then that place would have converted into a black hole and everything around would have been dragged inside it. Similarly the another most widely known reason behind the mystery of giant triangle is that there is the gateway to the lost city of Atlantis which was far developed than today’s technology. Both concepts are very funny because many ships travel every day through the Bermuda Triangle. But the travellers experience neither gravitational force nor do they find any lost city of Atlantis.

For more information, Bermuda triangle is not listed in the list of United States Board of geographical places. In conclusion, Bermuda Triangle is nothing more than a promotional, intellectual and business stunt of scholars.

3. I often find some people believing that Einstein had used only 10% of his mind potentiality. How can it be possible? If a man uses only 10% of mind capacity, what happens to the rest of the 90%? Is that paralysed? According to the scientists, everyone’s brain is always active by 100%. So we can’t say that Einstein has used only ten percentage of his mind potentiality. However 10% mind potentiality myth is still a controversial issue. There are many movies in Hollywood that support the 10% mind capacity myth. One of them I have watched is Lucy. Where Lucy becomes super intelligence equivalent to God after upgrading mind power from 10% to 100%. But it is still not proven scientifically.

4. When people discuss about reaching aliens’ planet or doing time travel, they present the idea of making a spacecraft which can travel faster than light. In fact, travelling faster than light is against the established theory of Physics. If we believe we can travel faster than light, we have to rewrite the physics. It is impossible. Einstein says that we can never go faster than light. If we can, we will die. So, the world can never have a spacecraft that can travel faster than light. It is already proven in the CERN that matter can travel only 99.99% of the speed of light. It is proven by accelerating particles near the speed of light not more than it.

5. Einstein is not the real inventor of nuclear bomb. He only showed the path to develop it. He had suggested US government to start nuclear project before Germany invents it. Because he believed that nuclear power should be invented at first in US. But Einstein did not participate directly in the first nuclear power project. Einstein is linked with the invention of nuclear bomb only because the nuclear bomb was invented on his idea of general theory of relativity that large power can be generated through a small matter if that is thrown in the speed of light.

6. Gravitational force discovered by Newton is not the actual reason planets revolve around the sun. According to the Einstein it is because the universe is curve. However Newton’s theory is accepted worldwide. Stephen Hawking says that it happened because Newton’s theory is more practicable and very easy.

7. District six is not the place of aliens’ prison. It is the former inner city residential area of South Africa where about 60,000 inhabitants were forcefully removed by apartheid regime in 1970 A.D. District 9, the Hollywood movie based on this event, has been released worldwide which is a modified story of aliens who were trapped on the earth with their spacecraft. So the rumour has spread that District Six is the banned place for humans.

8. God particle is not related to God. Its real name is Higgs Boson. During research, Peter Higgs, the discoverer of this particle, was so overwhelmed that he blamed God for irritation and named it God particle.

9. There are not only four dimensions {width, height, length and time}. According to modern scientists there are more than 12 dimensions, though we don’t know them. This belief is similar to the belief that there are only five senses like smell, hearing, taste, touch and sight{determined by Aristotle} where as there are more than 20 senses like thirst, hunger, pain etc.

10. General relativity is not the merely unique discovery of Einstein. Unlike Marxism of Karl Marx, General theory of relativity was already scattered in the world. Einstein integrated it and gave a new form. Think that there was no house on the earth. But there were bricks, water, cement, rod, furniture, paint, etc. Einstein collected all these things and gave an idea that these things can build a house. This idea later was proven by the engineers by building a house.

Do you agree with the facts mentioned above? If yes, what are other things you know? If you don’t agree, don’t forget to present your logic to start the intellectual discussion.